neoow

I moved home at the beginning of March and was super worried about how Alfie and my two cats would react. Funnily enough, Alfie was the calmest out of all of us. I moved everything else first and left Alfie and the cats til last. Alfie got put in his carrier and watched as we deconstructed his cage and loaded it into the van (it's too big to fit through doors unfortunately!) He then watched as we put it all back together again. When we got to the new house the living room was -mostly- set up. All the big stuff was in place, everything else was in boxes. I put his carrier in the cage and opened the door and let him come out in his own time. He settled really quickly- probably because the cage was exactly the same as he'd left it, I guess. The cats were worse then he was. One was ok, but the other hid and was quite unsettled for a few days. Funny how they can surprise you! Hope your move went well and everyone settled in ok!

Hello all, Now I'm in my own house instead of renting or living with parents I'm debating about all the different things I can do to put my stamp on the place. I've got lots of big projects planned but I'm also looking at the little things. One of the things I'd like to do is hang a toy from the ceiling for Alfie. His cage is in the living/dining room and he is restricted to the downstairs areas when out because I also own two cats who are not allowed to come into contact with him when he's out and therefore get shut upstairs. He normally hangs around on the top of his cage, on my leg if I'm sitting down (we often enjoy watching some TV and chilling out together on the couch) or on his playstand. His cage is near my desk and I was thinking about hanging a toy between the two so he had something else to play with whilst out. He loves his boing and swings so I was thinking something along those lines. I am a complete DIY novice so was looking for some advice on how to safely hang the toy from the ceiling. Ideally I'd like to remove it so the cats don't try and hang off it- so if anyone has any ideas for discreet hangers, that would be even better. So - do you have toys hanging from the ceiling? What do you use to hang them to ensure they stay up and don't damage the ceiling too much? Ooh, something that may help- I have artex ceiling with this kind of pattern: http://roberthannay.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/cimg0011.jpg - so I'm worried about it breaking away or being uneven? Many thanks!

I imagine my neighbours are quite amused when they walk past my house. They either see two nosey and vocal cats watching their every move or Alfie, whistling and clicking etc.

Thanks for your comments. I have attached (hopefully) a photo of Alfie- he's currently doing his bit for Neighbourhood Watch!

Adorable photos! Glad she is settling in so well!

Hello all, I'm mostly a lurker around these forums, just gleaning as much information as I can and posting occasionally. However, I am really happy today and wanted to share it. Some of you may remember my introductory post where I explained how I have had Alfie for 10 years, since he was about 11 weeks old. We've been through a lot together over the years and in my introduction post I explained how I haven't been the best owner I could have been (mostly due to changes in lifestyle and lack of time) and how I had thought about rehoming him to try and give him a better lifestyle. However, I didn't want to just give up and accept defeat so promised him that I would improve things and spend more time with him, which is what I have been trying to do. As always with greys it's been a slow process of getting him to trust me properly again and there have been several grumps and warning shots along the way when he isn't happy with me. Anyway... fast track to today and Alfie has been out of his cage for the entire afternoon/evening whilst I cleaned and tidied, watched some TV, cleaned his cage out and chatted away to him. He has been an absolute gem the whole afternoon and I think we've both really enjoyed ourselves. Normally he would end up getting in a grump about something (he has always been very quick to get in a bad mood) but I haven't had ANY of that this afternoon. He entertained himself on top of, in and and around his cage whilst I cleaned it out and pottered around the room. We did have a bit of an incident where the cats tried to let themselves in (one of them can open doors so I have to barricade the door with something heavy) and Alfie got spooked and flew of his cage to the floor. He was fine though and had a little explore around the room before hopping up on to the chair and hopping back on to his cage. I went and sat and watched some TV and invited Alfie to join me. He decided to sit on his cage for a while longer before flying to me. He landed on my arm and then sat on my leg for a while, watching TV with me and having some head scratches when he wanted them. After about an hour or so I wanted to put him on his perch in front of the window so I could continue tidying- this is normally met with some resistance but he stepped up first time and stepped straight on his perch and was happy watching the rain and some people go past. Once he'd had enough he flew back to his cage to see what I was up to. Then when I watched some more TV he decided to join me again for some more head scratches. He's been stepping up every time I have asked (though I haven't asked him to step up from his cage yet) and I even got a few whistles and kiss noises from him. (as well as the occasional burp... which he DIDN'T learn from me!!! haha) All in all this afternoon/evening has been an absolute blast. I've felt so comfortable around him and he with me and I feel I've finally cracked it with him. I haven't had a single warning shot from him and he hasn't gotten annoyed with me/anything which is a rarity. I'm so glad that I made the decision to try and work things out for him as I know it would have been heartbreaking to give him up. He's my bird and my commitment and I'm so happy to see the progress I have been seeing over the last few months- but absolutely ecstatic that we have had such a great time today which is why I wanted to share.

I'm pretty sure Alfie spends half his time hanging upside down on his various toys. He has a great time swinging around and bashing other toys.

Alfie has always preferred noises over words. He picks up whistles and other noises very quickly but takes longer for words. He also communicates better when I'm not in the room with him. He goes very quiet and only makes a few odd noises when I'm in the room. But when I leave he soon pipes up with his various noises. He's 10 years old and is still learning. Most recently he learned to say "good day" in a posh voice thanks to my friend. He has learned a few other words and phrases over the years but uses these sparingly. Within a couple of days of living in the new house, Alfie had picked up the sound of the neighbours car alarm that kept going off. He takes many days and sometimes weeks and months to start using new words though! I always find it exciting (even ten years on) when he starts mumbling to himself in different voices- usually means he's practicing a new sound/word.

How very peculiar. Alfie is indifferent about the TV. Sometimes he will make noises when I'm watching it but a lot of the time I have it on for background noise when I'm at the computer. If Alfie is out and I'm watching TV he will quite often fly to me and sit on my knee which I think is the cutest thing. I don't think he's interested in the TV, I think he just likes the fact I'm sitting somewhere and he can come and share some time and space with me. He knows that if he creeps up my leg and pokes at my arm he will get some head scratches too. It's a good bonding activity for us, actually, as he can be very particular about when I'm allowed to scratch his head!

I used to own a German Shepherd called Ben and Alfie had a great time learning various words relating to him. He would call Bren, tell him to sit, tell him to stay, tell him to "come on" (we used to say that when calling him in from outside) and would tell him to go outside. Would also tell him "No". He never learned to bark though. He prefers smaller dog barks if he is going to bark. I have two cats now and I'd heard Alfie say one of the cats names (Widget) once. He's never (as far as I'm aware) called the other cat (Pixel). He has copied their various meows (they are very talkative) brilliantly though. He tells them "No" and tells them "Off" when they are up to no good- normally quicker than I can manage. I love Alfie's interactions with other animals.

Cute video. Alfie started whistling in response when he heard it hehe.

I love your photos. I especially like the first one... looks like he's trying to eat a cloud! =D

Hahah yeah and don't I know it! He tends to be ok for most of the time - likes perching on the back of my chair and watching what I'm doing. Occasionally he will creep over and start investigating things. I've managed to get this far without anything being broken though - the best trick I have is distracting him with something else like a plastic ball or another foot toy that he is more interested in! Thanks for the tips on introducing him to different parts of the house. He's generally pretty good but it's always obvious when he's not happy with something. So I plan to take it slow and steady and see how he gets on.

Cute video!

I used to have a dog and a cat. I now have two cats. Alfie has always been interested in the animals. He is always a lot friendlier/calmer around animals than he is new people. For example, my dog (A German Shep) used to wander up and sniff Alfie's cage. Alfie would climb down to investigate the dogs nose. Wouldn't bite it or anything. He never tried to go after the cat either. However, if a strange person walked up to his cage, he woudn't be very happy, which is fair enough. With my two cats now, he is very tolerant. They quite often stick a paw in the bottom of his cage and one even tried to climb the cage the other day. Alfie doesn't mind too much. The worst he has done is fire off a warning shot- going to bite but deliberately missing the cat and hitting the side of the cage to make a noise. This is usually enough to deter the cats. If they remain with their paw in the cage Alfie will ever so slowly and deliberately move his beak towards the paw. I've seen him touch one of their paws once- but he has never bitten them or been vicious. If it was a human, he would get annoyed and try and bite them. The cats (despite being very prey driven) mostly leave him alone. They sit and watch from a distance and sometimes stick a paw in (usually to dig out something Alfie has discarded to investigate). It was always a bit of a worry getting the two cats with Alfie but it's worked out well. Though I would never trust any of them with Alfie out of the cage- not sure who would be most at risk - Alfie from the cats or the cats from Alfie!! When Alfie is out, the cats are shut out of the room he's in as he's fully flighted and I bet they would chase/jump at him/torment him if they saw him out of the cage. Alfie doesn't really make warning noises about the cats though. He will tell him off if he thinks they are being naughty though. If they jump up somewhere they shouldn't he will say "off!" and if they are generally being naughty (or just too rowdy for his liking) he will say "No!" in my voice. If he thinks they need ushering out of a room he says "come on!" Same as he was when I had the dog and the other cat really. He would give commands to the dog- sit, stay, down, outside, come on, no, good boy and whistle to him... not that the dog paid any attention to it! He would do similar to the cat (e.g try and call him in from outside). I think he thinks he's the boss around here haha. The dog used to get very concerned if he thought Alfie was distressed or in trouble though. If Alfie was being silly and fell off a perch/toy the dog would rush to his cage to make sure he was ok and sniff him as he climbed back up. I always found that really sweet. However Alfie never really displayed similar towards the dog. He was mostly just curious and more interested in giving him commands hehe.

And some bonus videos from the same day - just the same thing really, Alfie hanging with his toy. Got a bit snap happy! Haha. One of them has one of my cats (Widget) meowing in the background- think he was getting jealous!! [video=youtube;FR-AvURgpzk] [video=youtube;Vj5uWUo-doA]

Couple of bonus photos from the other day too: I missed a good photo op yesterday. Alfie shared some of my roast gammon dinner (minus the gammon) and tucked into his mash potato, peas and carrots. He sat there munching away, beak covered in mash! Unfortunately I didn't have my phone or camera to hand though.

This will be my next move. He seems happy with the lounge/diner where he is based but I haven't yet taken him on a tour of the rest of the house- thought I was best to give him some extra time to properly settle in to this room before tackling the others! But he seems perfectly happy and fine with this room. The best part is, I now have my desk next to his cage so he has a lot more attention/company than before and can see/hear what I'm doing. He seems really happy about this and will perch nearby to keep an eye on me/what I'm up to. And of course there are times when he tries to "help" with my work as well! Haha

I moved house two weeks ago and I'm pleased to say that Alfie took it all in his stride. I was far more stressed than he was about everything. I was really worried about moving him and my two cats. I left all of the animals until last to allow me time to move furniture roughly in place in the new house. Alfie was fine with it all. He watched as we took all the furniture away. He didn't really want to go in his carry box but did so without too much trouble/hassle and when I put him in his cage in the new house he settled in much quicker than I thought he would! Not really sure why I was so worried now haha! He just sat and stared and checked everything out. New surroundings but familiar furniture with the same cage (and same cage layout as he had at the old house). It didn't take him long to start whistling away at me again. It took the cats twice as long as Alfie to get used to things! I'm very lucky really because Alfie isn't as change adverse as some other African Grey's I have read about. He has been on holidays before and has always settled in quite quickly. He's usually pretty good with new toys except for the odd one or two that he freaked out about when he first saw them. Happy parrot = happy owner!

Here is a video of Alfie just 'hanging around'. He's been quite playful this evening and this toy has been his focus. He kept hanging upside down and making himself swing and spin in circles whilst poking at the two bells. It kept him happy and amused me at the same time! https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151553072697037&l=3320691539354566139 [Edited to add: Although it might look like it in this video his foot isn't stuck. I've got another one (which was out of focus) which shows him swapping feet quite freely! Just thought I'd better add that in case anyone was concerned hehe! He just likes hanging upside down on things]

That's awesome. Great idea! Seems to work very well too

Thanks, I've got a dish which is similar- it's a food bowl meant for smaller animals like rabbits/guinea pigs etc but it's quite shallow and has a good surface area. I've shown it to Alfie, filled it with some water and played with the water to try and tempt him but he usually isn't interested. He poked at it a couple of times but didn't play with the water or seem overly interested. It never even occurred to me to put toys in there to perk his interest. I've got some I could use as well. So that's a useful idea for me to try. It's not a problem when he baths in his water bowl. I normally help him out by getting the spray bottle out, which he is fine with, thankfully. It's just he can't fit in it and have a good splash around. He normally only gets one foot wet or just his toes. The majority of it ends up on the walls and floors instead of himself as well. So I'll try some toys or ice cubes in the larger bowl and see how he gets on.

Will have to try this with Alfie. He'll bath in his water bowl but won't go near a tray or any other container with water.

Amazing bird!

Looks fantastic! I'd love to have a bird room just for Alfie but unfortunately just don't have the space to do so. We make do with what we've got though!